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I need some help on fabric. I am building a SLK that is 8 ft. in diameter and has some 4 ft. long wings coming off of that. The circle will be supported in 8 places. I built one kite previously with ripstop nylon from Joann Fabric and I had to add bias tape across it and around the outside to add strength to the nylon. Joann Fabric does not list the weight of their nylon. So, with the kite dimension above, what weight fabric should I use? Is there any rule of thumb to kite size and the weight of the fabric?

Is Joann Fabric a shop that sells normal clothing type fabrics? Is their ripstop nylon coated?

Personally my experience is almost all dual line but I only use fabrics designed for sailmaking rather than the ripstop used for making garments. A .75oz coated ripstop is much more stable than the garment ripstops I've seen.

I like Chikara but North, Bainbridge, Kayospruce and Porche Marine are all nice .75oz ripstops

On a kite that size the weight of the fabric isn't that critical .60 - 1.5 oz will work just fine. The color saturation on the 1.5 oz is often better so you might consider it unless weight is a great concern. The standard is the. 75 oz and it wll suit any kite well.

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Thanks for the responses. Joann Fabric is clothing fabric store. Their ripstop is coated and OK for tails or small kites, but I didn't think it was strong enough for the larger kites. I'm going to buy some fabric from a reputable kite site to build this one.Thanks again.

On my first few kite projects, I used the Joann's ripstop. I'm not going to do that again. Compared to sail fabrics, it's not coated, and as you learned, it stretches horribly while you're working with it.

You'll be pleasantly surprised how easy real sailcloth is to work with in comparison.

I up-dated my profile. I live in Birmingham, AL. As for stating that the Joann Fabric was coated, I painted on the fabric, won't do that again. Some of the paint did not stick and I read that it was from the teflon coating. Doesn't matter now, I will not paint again and from what I've read here, I will not use Joann Fabric again. The diamond kite shown is the one that I previously built and painted.

I up-dated my profile. I live in Birmingham, AL. As for stating that the Joann Fabric was coated, I painted on the fabric, won't do that again. Some of the paint did not stick and I read that it was from the teflon coating. Doesn't matter now, I will not paint again and from what I've read here, I will not use Joann Fabric again. The diamond kite shown is the one that I previously built and painted.

Thanks again for the responses.

ah I was going to say that if you were int he New England area I might have a present for you....a little too far though...

You are learning! That what matters.....Have you happened to find the other kite forum???the one that has the initials of KB and is all about building stuff that looks like kites??

As for stating that the Joann Fabric was coated, I painted on the fabric, won't do that again. Some of the paint did not stick and I read that it was from the teflon coating.

Garment ripstops are often treated to make them shed water, sail fabrics are impregnated with some sort of plastic (polyester for Icarex, not sure what they use on nylon) under very high pressures. You end up with a a sort of thin plastic coating over the fabric which apart from anything else helps stop it stretching.

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